Naruto: Records of One Piece
by SamCastialWinchester
Summary: FemNaruto. If she hadn't forgotten her memories then maybe she wouldn't be in this situation. Now here she was, helping her best-friend become Pirate King while at the same time searching for way back to a home that she barely remembered but desperately longed to find. Of course, she didn't expect Luffy and his crew or Ace to make her have doubts of going home.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything except the plot.

**Chapter 1**

"Makino-san, where do you think I come from? Was there any clues when you found me?"

Makino, a pretty dark-haired young girl in her early twenties, looked up from the plate that she was wiping to look at the ten-year-old blond-haired girl. She was the bar owner of Partys Bar, which was the only bar in Foosha Village. She was one of the most well liked residents of Foosha Village.

The young girl was dressed in a yellow kerchief, an orange blouse with black sleeves and a long light blue skirt. Her dark hair fell down just above her shoulder and had a skin with no blemishes. Her dark eyes gleamed in thoughtfulness as well as concern. "I don't know Naru-chan, I don't have any idea on where you come from. When I found you in the beach, there had been no indication on where you come from."

"Nothing? There must have been something, right? I couldn't have been in the sea for no good reason right? When you found me was there anything on me that seemed unusual to you or something? Or I must have said something that sounded strange?" The blond girl grasped the ends of her dark red skirt, looking at the young woman with desperation. The teen shook her head, frowning at the blond, who smiled sadly. She gave the young girl a thoughtful look and Naru looked up at her with hope dancing in her eyes.

"Well when I found you, you were muttering something about Hokage but I didn't understand what it meant. I thought at the time it was the name of your village and so I asked the other villagers about whether they knew a village called Hokage and they claimed to know nothing about it."

"So you think I come from another village?"

"I thought you came from another country that must be in war or something because of how odd you dressed and the state that I found you in," Makino took in a shaky breath and clutched her apron while Naru looked down at her dangling feet, waiting for the young woman to continue speaking. "When I found you, you had a slashes on your chest and arms, blood had been pouring out of there. It was a miracle that you survived. It was a miracle that you don't have any scars from it and that the doctor had been able to heal you from it."

"But I lost my memories because of that," Naru said sullenly. "I can't remember anything except my name and my age but anything else is a mystery to me. The memories before you found me are gone and nothing I do seems to brings it back."

Makino frowned and put her an assuring hand on her shoulder, squeezing it gently before giving her a small hug. Naru felt her body stiffened at the contact, acting as if a hug from Makino was strange when really it wasn't all that strange to be hugged by the pretty teen. Her body should be used to this by now but for some strange reason, it wasn't used to it.

Maybe, it was because she had only known Makino for four year? This had to be the only reasonable explanation that she could think of.

"Your memories will come back to you, Naru-chan," Makino said softly and the blond-haired girl lifted up her head to stare at her with broken eyes. Naru had heard from the adults that sometimes being able to forget aspects of your life were great, a treat from god but she couldn't see it that.

To her losing her memories had felt like she had her whole heart ripped out of her chest, no like it had been ripped to sheds and that nothing she could do would bring back the memories she had lost.

"What if they don't come back, Makino-san?" Naru whispered. "What if I'll never figure out who I am? What if I'll never know if I had my parents waiting for me? What if I find out that my parents are dead or something? Or if I had been replaced by them?"

"Your parents wouldn't replace you, Naru-chan."

Naru shook her head at this. For some reason, she couldn't help but had this feeling that they would have, that maybe she wasn't all that important. She couldn't help but think that there was a huge chance that maybe she really had no parents. After all, if she did have parents, wouldn't they have found her by now? Wouldn't they have announced to the whole world that their only daughter was missing or something? Like the nobles in their kingdom for their missing son.

"I hope you're right, Makino-san," Naru muttered.

"Why would they replace a cute, adorable girl like you? With the cute laugh that you have?" Makino tickled her sides, grinning as she heard the little girl laughed out loud. "You're their daughter, of course they wouldn't want to replace you. Your parents must be worried about you. I bet the only reason why they haven't found you yet are because of the fact the world is a big place. I think your parents are hoping and waiting for the day when you see them again."

"Do you really think so?" Naru looked at her wide-eyed. "Do you really think my parents are waiting for the day when I come back home to them?"

"I've no doubt about it," Makino said firmly, nodding her head at the big-blue eyed girl. Naru looked at the smiling face of Makino before gripping the red whirlpool necklace that hung on her neck. This was her last link to the home that she didn't remember and the only link to the past that she knew she had.

"If they are waiting for me then that means I need to search for them, right?" Naru mused, tilting her head at Makino. She didn't wait for the older girl to respond, bouncing on her chair. "Then that means I'll need to travel the whole world to get back home! I'll need to search every country and set sail in all seas to find out where my homeland right?"

"I guess so."

Naru jumped off her stool and hugged Makino, causing the young woman to stiffen at the sudden appreciation before hugging the young girl back. Even through, she had lost her memories and it might be a long time before she returned back home. She still had one form of family, and this was the young woman who had taken care of her for four whole years.

"Makino-san, I promise you when I get back home, I'll send you a million letters telling you all about it. I'll even send you pictures of it! And…and I'll tell my parents all about ya! And I'll visit you all the time!"

"I can't wait, Naru-chan."

**~X~**

Naru took a small sip of her orange juice, watching as a couple of pirates drank the whole tank of sake that Makino had given them. She wrinkled her nose as the scent of alcohol hit the nostrils of her nose and pressed her small hands against her mouth, hoping and praying that no puke would spill from her mouth.

She stopped drinking her orange juice when she noticed that Luffy had entered the establishment with Shanks in tow. The red-haired man seemed a little bit pissed, which made her widened her eyes and took a seat closer to Makino. She glanced at Luffy, who had goofy smile on his face as he took a seat beside her.

She blinked her eyes when she noticed a bandage under his cheek and asked, "Hey Luffy, what happen to ya?"

"I stabbed myself with a knife Naru," Luffy said as he tried to steal her drink from her hand but only to get slapped by the blonde, who now clutched her drink closer to her chest.

Naru blinked and blinked her eyes again before slapping the boy on the head, causing him to yelp out in pain and to tumble down the chair. He rubbed his head while the blonde curled her lips, put her hands on her hips and gave the boy the darkest look that she could muster at this point.

"Why the hell did you do something as stupid as that, Luffy? How many times have I told you not to do anything stupid huh?" Naru took a huge gulp of her orange juice before continuing. "You could have gotten yourself killed because you stabbed yourself with a knife! Think before you act!" she slapped his hand away from her drink and glared at him. "And don't think of stealing my orange juice or else, I'll do worse then slapping your hand away!"

"Like what?"

"Like knocking your teeth so hard that ya won't be able to feel them," Naru nodded her head. "Or I could do what I did to that stupid boy across the street, he still haven't recovered from my kick!"

"Your kicks are worse then any knife," Luffy said. "You could send any person, grown or not out the window and flying to another country right?"

Naru nodded her head, smiling triumphantly at his words before shaking her head at him. She looked at him closely before stating, "Now tell me Luffy, was stabbing yourself with a knife painful or not? And choose your words wisely or else I'll send you to the next town and over."

"It didn't hurt one bit!" Luffy said, tears streaming down his eyes and Naru rolled her eyes before lightly smacking the boy on his head. He rubbed the back of his neck, stared at her before sticking his tongue out for her to see. Naru smiled, shaking her head and jumped off her stool, going back of the bar to bring a drink for Luffy and Shanks.

"Don't do anything so stupid again!" Shanks said and Naru had no doubt that the younger boy had been denying that he hadn't felt any pain from stabbing himself with the knife. She handed the sake to Shanks and handed the apple juice to Luffy, who gave her a wide-grin before taking a huge gulp of the juice.

"I'm not afraid of pain at all! Next time bring me out to sea!" Luffy said as soon as he finished drinking the apple juice that she had given him. He had a wide smile on his face causing Shanks to chuckle and Naru to shake her head affectionately at the young boy. "I want to be a pirate too!"

"You can't handle being a pirate!" Shanks said, laughing out loud. "Not being able to swim is a pirate's greatest weakness!"

"Is swimming something necessary for a pirate to know?" Naru asked, tilting her head at the red-haired man. "Can't a pirate be someone that doesn't know how to swim as well?"

"They won't survive long in the sea if they can't swim," Shanks said, grinning at her.

"Well you heard him, Luffy, you need to learn how to swim before you can become a pirate," Naru informed the young boy, galloping down her orange juice. She rubbed her mouth with the sleeve of her dress before continuing. "Through that is a lot of bullshit. Maybe there's another way of becoming a pirate without having the need to learn to swim."

"Like staying onboard the ship!" Luffy suggested.

"What will you do if the ship exploded then?"

"Won't you save me?" Luffy asked, looking at her wide-eyed.

Naru tapped her chin with her finger before grinning at the young boy and answered, "Of course I save you, Luffy. Just as long as you prove to me that you only need me to save you from drowning and nothing else. Through I'll help you in fights! And I'll only help you until I find my way back home! After that we'll go our separate ways, through we'll always be our friends! Other then that, yeah I'll help ya in anything else, even fighting."

"I don't need your help in fights!" Luffy pumped his fist. "My punch is as strong as a pistol."

"If your punch is strong as a pistol then my punch is as strong as a bazooka!" Naru retorted, ducking as one of the pirates threw a table at their direction. She pulled Luffy down while Shanks ducked down as well when a huge rectangle table was thrown their way.

"Pistol? Bazooka? Wow, really?" Shanks said, looking at them in boredom when they pulled up from their cover.

"What kind of tone is that?"

"A tone that tells us that he isn't taking you seriously and that he won't take you on his ship because he thinks you're just too young, something I'm not," Naru said dryly, handing the boy another glass of apple juice. He took the glass of juice from her hand, pouting as he did so and this caused the blonde to smile at him, pinching his cheeks. He glared at her and she laughed even more at him.

"I'm not too young!"

"You're seven."

"Well, you're ten!"

"So? At least I know how to punch someone so hard that I can send them to the next town!"

"Well I can do that too!" Luffy boasted.

"Sure you can and I'm some kind of princess that is waiting to be rescued," Naru retorted. "Face it, Luffy, you're just too young to go on a ship just yet. You still need someone watching over ya! And don't let me get started on that old man of yours! Besides, Shanks is just too busy to keep an eye on you!"

"She's right," Shanks said, causing the two of them to look at him. "You're still too young. Wait at least another ten years and I'll reconsider taking you out to sea."

"Darn it, Shanks! Naru! Let me tell you! I'm not a kid anymore!"

"You still drink milk, Luffy," Naru retorted, looking hard at the young boy. "Of course, you're still a little kid, you're younger then me by a good three years. And don't forget in the eyes of the kingdom, you aren't consider a kid until you're seventeen years old!"

"But!"

"No buts, just accept the fact that you and me are still kids and that he won't take you out until you're seventeen years…or if he wasn't so scared of your old man," Naru retorted. He pouted at her and stuck his tongue out before jumping off his stool, heading towards the other direction. She shook her head and glared at the red-haired man.

He raised his eyebrow at the blonde. Naru smiled coldly and said, "You shouldn't have said no that harshly to him!"

"It wouldn't be as fun and you also told him no, didn't you?"

"Well yeah but only because he would only start annoying us about it until you said yes or until I punch him in the head for being annoying," Naru looked at Shanks closely before continuing. "Hey Shanks, you've been everywhere right? I mean with being a pirate and all that, you must have been to"

"Nearly everywhere."

"Well have you heard of a place called Hokage?" Naru asked, tilting her head at the red-haired pirate. The red-haired pirate's eyes widened at her question and he pursed his lips at her, looking torn between answering her question or not. Her breath hitched in excitement at the mere thought of someone knowing where her home was but released it when she saw him shaking her head.

"I heard of a place that had a leader called the Hokage," Shanks informed her and his face darkened. "And that places, no those countries had to be one of the most bloodthirstiness places I've seen. It's so bad that I would only going go there if my life depended on it."

"Oh," Naru muttered, looking down at her hands. "I see."

"But the lands there are beautiful and the sake there isn't too bad, not as good as my hometown but it was still pretty good," the man said, smiling at her.

"I see…" Naru jumped down from her stool and gave the man a big smile before heading towards Makino, who was staring at her in concern. She gave a wide smile to the young woman and jumped on the seat, spinning on the stool before staring at the young woman.

"So? What did Shanks say?" Makino asked, smiling at her.

"It looks as if my home had a leader called a Hokage and that it is a bloodthirsty place," Naru answered cheerfully and the young woman frowned at her, putting her hand on her shoulder. "He said that he would only go to those countries if his life depended on it. That just tells me that my home seem to be so dangerous that even Shanks doesn't like the idea of it. If that dangerous then what hope do I have to survive?"

"You're one of the strongest girls I know Naru-chan," Makino said, staring her hard in the eye and the blonde looked up at her wide-eyed. "You're the only girl I know that can make the men in our village scream like a little girl and the only girl that will dare to land a finger on Luffy."

"But what if I can't survive in those lands?"

"You lived there before you came here, didn't you?" Makino asked and Naru nodded her head. "Then what's there to say you can't survive there? You lived there and survived there for six years before washing up in our village! You can survive another couple of years there! I know you can!"

Naru smiled at those words. Knowing that someone believed that she could do it felt nice and maybe she was being an idiot for doubting herself of surviving there. If she had survived there for the first six years of her life, then there was nothing that said that she couldn't survive there for the rest of her life.

"Wait a second, Naru, you come from those lands?" Shanks asked, drawing their attention towards him.

Naru frowned and nodded her head. "I think so! Makino-san found me nearly dead in the beach and apparently the last word I said to her before I passed out was Hokage."

"Hokage, huh?" Shanks asked, staring at her thoughtfully. He flickered his eyes at her sun-kissed blond hair before looking at the necklace that clung to her neck. She glared at the pirate, who laughed and raised his hands at her. "I'm not going to steal that necklace off you, Naru! I just find it interesting, that's all."

"Why?"

Shanks smiled and answered, "Well when I was in those lands, I heard that the insignia on your necklace represented a clan that had been destroyed in their last war and that the clan had their clan members spread out all of the place."

"Really?" Naru took the necklace off her neck and looked at it closely, fingering the whirlpool insignia. "I never knew that. I always thought that it was some weird necklace that my parents gave me."

"Or it could be that too! Maybe your parents just gave you some weird necklace!"

Naru rolled her eyes at the pirate and put back the necklace before staring at the doors of the bar and then to Shanks, who was eating his food, and to Luffy, who was doing the same thing. "Do you think I could be a part of that clan, Shanks?"

"Maybe," Shanks said, gulping down the food. "I don't know much about that clan or the place over there…the last time I had been there, I saw a guy I respected died to protect his home."

"Oh."

"How did he die?" Luffy asked, drawing their attention to him.

"Well a demon appeared out of nowhere and started to attack the village," Shanks replied as he gobbled down his food. "It was killing so many people, and the fighters of that village were trying to prevent it from coming near their home, waiting for that guy to appear. When the guy did appear, which by the way he appeared on top of a toad…"

"That's so cool!" Naru and Luffy said in unison.

Shanks laughed at the pair of them before sobering up and continued, "Well he appeared and did some strange thing to make the demon gone but it came with a great cost."

"His life," Naru said automatically as a sudden memory rushed through her mind. "He killed the demon with some kind of jutsu but no one knows how he did it, the people who bear witness to it never survived and so couldn't tell anyone about what he did."

"Not exactly," Shanks replied as he stared at her oddly while Makino and Luffy looked at her in surprise. "People knew how he did it but me being an outsider wasn't allowed to know how he did it or what he did to get rid of the demon."

"That's funny because I just remembered that I had went to school and was told in school that no one knew how he killed the demon," Naru muttered, propping her hands on the table. "I just know that he died, killing a demon and that he was hailed a hero."

"He sounds cool."

"He was an okay kind of guy," Shanks said, smiling at the two of them. "Naru looks like a female version of him except with a rounder face."

"Did he have any kids?" Luffy asked.

"I wasn't that close to him to know but knowing his personality, he would have announced to the whole world if he was going to have a kid, especially if it was a girl!" Shanks answered, taking a huge bite of meat. "I mean you should have seen him with his wife, they acted like one of the worst love-sick couples I have ever met. Always teased him about being whipped to his wife."

"That isn't nice."

"If you've seen how he used to bow down in terror when his wife got furious then you would agree that he was whipped," Shanks retorted, staring at the blond-haired girl. "Couldn't blame the man. His wife had to be one of the most scariest women I have ever met in my life, could even give some of the marines a run on their money."

"She was that scary!" Luffy said, looking wide-eyed at him.

Shanks nodded his head and said, "Imagine Naru anger except ten times worse."

Luffy turned pale at the idea and sweated at hearing this. Naru crossed her arms, scowling at Shanks. She wasn't that scary! She just didn't have a good control of her temper like the others! It wasn't like she meant to be scary when she was angry. So she might broke a few things when she was furious but it didn't mean she was scary.

Or did it?

"I'm not that scary, am I?" Naru asked, tilting her head at Makino.

"Of course not," Makino answered automatically. "Shanks is just being silly that's all. You're not a scary person Naru, you're just a little bit…hot-tempered."

Naru nodded, biting her lip from saying something rude to the young woman about not being hot-tempered. The young woman had taken care of her for the past four years when she could have simply left her alone. Raising her voice would be showing that she wasn't grateful and the last thing she wanted, was to be seen as an ungrateful brat by the woman.

"How long are you gonna stay?" Luffy asked, struggling to take a bite of his meat.

Shanks twirled his spoon, smiling at Luffy as he pondered over his question. "Well, it almost been a year since we used this town as our base. I plan on setting sail a couple more times then we'll leave this town and head north."

"A couple of times…" Luffy muttered, swallowing his meat. Naru frowned, knowing this and looked at Makino who sighed at this knowledge. She hadn't really observed her surrounding well but she had noticed that Makino and Shanks were closer then friends should be. Through Makino had always denied that they were.

It was like she was afraid that she would spill the beans or something similar to that.

"I'll learn how to swim by then!" Luffy declared.

"If you don't get distracted by your own curiosity," Naru called out.

"I don't get distracted."

"I nearly lost you in a middle of town because you got distracted by a pretty butterfly," Naru retorted. "Yes you get distracted and I've no doubt that you would get distracted from learning how to swim."

"Well not if it is going to help me become a pirate!"

"If you say so but if I find out that you've skipped swimming lessons because of a butterfly or another silly thing then you can bet your skinny ass that I'll whip you into shape, got it?" Luffy paled and nodded his head, causing the blonde to grin and pinched the younger boy's cheek.

"And that's why Luffy can't be a real pirate just yet…he's terrified of a little girl," Shanks said, laughing at the pair of them.

"Like you aren't terrified of Makino-san!" Naru retorted and that immediately got the older man to stop laughing and Luffy to start laughing. "Honestly if you're going to make a comment, at least back up the statement you're making. You along with every other men in this village, except Grap, seemed to be terrified whenever Makino glares at you!"

"Because she doesn't glare and when she does, it means trouble!"

"Excuses, excuses!" Naru said, waving her hand at his words. "You just don't want to admit that you're terrified of her."

Naru would have teased the older man more if the door hadn't been slammed opened by a man, who walked up to Makino with his hands in pockets. She wrinkled her nose and instinctively grabbed Luffy, who looked at her in confusion and opened his mouth to say something but closed it when he saw the dark look on the blond's face.

"We're bandits," Naru bit her lips from snorting at his obvious statement. "We're not here to cause any trouble. We just wanna buy ten barrels of sake."

Makino sweated, clutching the board in her hand tightly as she said, "I'm so sorry but we're out of sake."

"Oh?" the man surveyed the room. He scowled at the sight of Naru and Luffy, both of whom were glaring at him and continued scanning the room, stopping when he noticed that Shanks had in his hands a mug of sake.

"Is it water?" the man asked.

"Is he really that stupid?" Naru muttered, tightening her grip on Luffy as she stared at the two men. "Who drinks water in a bar! We do it because we aren't old enough but Shanks can…he really is a bloody idiot."

"You swore!" Luffy exclaimed. "You told me never to swear!"

"That's because you're younger then me and that automatically means that you have to be more innocent then me!" Naru retorted. "Now keep ya damn mouth shut! We can't have you causing a scene with those two."

"I wasn't going to!"

"Knowing you, you'll cause a scene."

"I'm sorry. It looks like we've finished all the sake here. Sorry about that," Shanks said, smiling at the man before offering the sake bottle and Naru's eyes widened at this. "Here, if you don't mind take the last bottle."

Naru tightened her hold on Luffy, gritting her teeth as the man smashed the bottle of sake against Shank's hat. If she hadn't pulled Luffy out of the way earlier then there would have been no doubt in her mind that the younger boy would have gotten serious injured. But she was worried about Shanks. Sure he was a great pirate and everything but he could have been injured because of this.

She gritted her teeth at this thought.

"Just who do you think I am? Don't take me so lightly!" The man snarled, glaring at the drenching wet Shanks. "One bottle isn't enough!"

"Oh no," Shanks muttered, staring down at the wet floor. "Now the floor is all wet."

Naru smiled at his words before glaring at the man that stood in front of her. She had this urge to rip him to sheds and feed him to the wolves, who would no doubt loved to eat a disgusting man like that. She wanted to murder the man for daring to hurt Shanks, for threatening Makino but that would meant letting go of Luffy and the idiot would do worst things then she could imagine.

That was saying something since she had a pretty cruel mind if she dared say so.

"My head is worth eight million beli!" Naru unconsciously loosened her hold on Luffy as she grimaced at this piece of news. She didn't need to be a genius to know that was a lot of money. "I'm one of the prime fugitives here! And I've killed fifty-six people before! You cocky bastard!"

"56 people isn't that much," Naru muttered and this caused Luffy to look at her in curiosity. She frowned and explained to the younger boy in a softer voice, "The demon that the Hokage had killed had killed way more people then that."

"Now that you know who I am, don't mess with us again!" The bandit snapped. "After all mountain bandits and sea pirates don't mingle very well!"

Shanks didn't seem to listen to him in Naru's opinion and she was basing this opinion on the fact that he was now cleaning up the stupid bandit's mess. She couldn't understand why he wouldn't force the bandit to do it. It was his mess! And he should be the one cleaning it up. She let go of Luffy and listened as Shanks apologized to Makino and asked for a mop.

Naru's eyes narrowed when she saw that the man was bringing out a sword. Before anyone even realized it, Naru had slammed her fist against the man's abdomen and kicked him in the head. She ignored the surprised, frightened looks from the other bandits, fixing her eyes at the man that was clutching his stomach in pain.

"You're one hell of a coward," Naru snarled, putting her hands onto her pockets as she stomped her foot harder against the man's abdomen. She took the man by the collar and slammed him against the counter, causing him to groan in pain and to stare at her wide-eyed. "Who the hell are you to attack a man that is cleaning the mess you make! If anything you should be grateful because if it had been me, I would have forced you to clean it up!"

"Like you could!"

"I bloody hell can! You just got owned by a ten-year-old girl," Naru sneered. "I think that bounty you have must be some kind of joke if you could be bested by a little girl."

"Why you little…" The man said, glaring at her.

"Brat?" Naru supplied. She threw the man against the table and picked up his fallen sword, before pointing it at his neck. "Now look here, if I see you come here again and threatened my friend ever again then the next time we meet, I'll send you flying to the next town! Now leave!"

With just two words from her, the men scrambled away from the bar and Naru slumped down in her seat, looking at her hands in horror. She had never done something like that. She always had Makino or someone else handling it but when those men came in, and Shanks didn't do anything, well she let her temper got the best of her.

She had been lucky that the man hadn't expected her to attack him.

"THAT WAS DISGRACEFUL!" Luffy yelled to Shanks as soon as the bandits were gone. "WHY DIDN'T YOU FIGHT HIM? WHY DID YOU LET NARU FIGHT HIM! AND WHO LAUGHS AFTER GETTING PICKED ON? YOU'RE NOT A MAN OR A PIRATE!"

"Luffy, calm down!" Naru snapped, slapping the boy on the head.

"But Naru!"

"Don't Naru me, he had his reasons!" The blonde took a deep breath and continued. "If he hadn't laughed and picked a fight like I had then you can bet your ass that he had fallen for his trap."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that stupid bandit was doing it on purpose," Naru said, gritting her teeth. "He did that because he wanted Shanks to beat him up and to cause an even bigger fight. If Shanks fought him then this whole building would be destroyed and we would be hurt."

"But you fought him!"

"Yeah because he wasn't expecting it and because I let my temper got the better of me," Naru admitted reluctantly. "Now because of that, I've no doubt that the man would want to kill me because I insulted his strength."

"But…"

"You shouldn't get furious about it," Naru nodded her head firmly. "It takes a bigger man to ignore a fight, didn't your Gramps tell ya that?"

"Well…"

"You didn't pay attention to him, did you?" Naru frowned. "Then again, I don't know if that will be something your grandfather would say seeing as we don't see him that much and me and him have different ideas on what justice is. Anyways, you should just understand that Shanks did it to save your skinny ass and to protect everyone in the bar!"

Luffy frowned and crossed his arms causing the blonde to twitched her eyebrows at him but made of no attempt to stop the boy from walking away. She glanced at Shanks, who had a smile on his face as he clutched Luffy's hand. Everyone in the room gasped as Luffy continued walking, with his arm stretched from where Shanks was to the door.

"W-What the hell is happening, Makino-san?" Naru asked, rubbing her eyes at the sight in front of her.

"I-I don't know," Makino answered.

"It's gone!" One of Shanks' men yelled, opening the treasure chest to reveal that there was no treasure in it. "The Gomu Gomu no Mi we took from the enemy isn't here!"

All the pirates turned pale at this and stuttered, "W-What!"

"The fruit you stole isn't there anymore!" Naru stated and all the pirates glared at her for reminding them. She smiled apologetically at them and watched as the crewmember practically begged Luffy to tell them whether he ate the fruit that they stole or not.

She snorted at this.

Anyone who knew Luffy would say without a doubt that Luffy would have eaten it without a second thought.

"It tasted pretty bad," was Luffy answer.

"Luffy, what are we going to do with you? Maybe we should start training you not to think with your stomach and to think with your head," Naru mused, pulling a seat beside him while Shanks walked back and forth. He stopped walking, took a deep breath before taking a seat beside the blonde.

"That fruit is one of the fruit of the devil and one of the rarest treasures in the sea!" Shanks finally shouted, tugging the boy's cheeks. "Whoever eats the Gomu Gomu no Mi will turn into rubber and will never be able to swim."

"You're kidding, right?" Luffy asked, his jaw dropping at this.

"Luffy, he wouldn't be panicking about this if he was," Naru answered. "And think about it, that was treasure, so why would he joke about this if you ate his treasure that could have made him rich!"

"You idiot!" Shanks muttered as Luffy gulped.

The funniest thing for Naru was the fact that it was just another typical day in their village, except for the exception of Luffy eating the fruit. Now that had been something no one had expected to happen.

Naru grinned at this. She had a feeling that more and more strange things were going to happen if she stick around Luffy and if there was one thing she couldn't do, it was leaving that boy side. They made a deal. She helped him with his dream; he would help her with hers.

It just made it more fun that trouble was looking for him.

**A/N: Please review**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything except the plot.

A/N: I would like to thank everyone who had added this story and reviewed the first chapter. To answer the question about whether Naru has Tsunade-like strength, the answer is yes.

* * *

"Hey Makino-san, do you know where Garp is dragging Luffy off to at this time in the morning?"

Naru was currently sitting down on one of the barstools that were faced towards the window that showed the path to the mountains. She propped her hand on the table, tiling her head while Makino continued to wipe the plate before looking at the blond-haired girl that was now furrowing her eyebrows at the sounds of Luffy demanding for his grandfather to let go of his ear.

It had been a few weeks since the incident where she had kicked the leader of the bandits on the stomach and nothing much had changed since the incident. The only thing that changed was that Shanks had left this small town after saving Luffy from those bandits, who couldn't take the hint that they weren't wanted.

Shanks wouldn't have lost his arm if Luffy had learnt to kept his mouth shut when it came to those bandits but Naru couldn't really blame her best-friend for reacting like he did. If it had been her, she would have done more then just yell at those bastards for insulting the great red-haired pirate, who had brought fun to this small town and saved this village from trouble.

"Garp is taking Luffy to live in a new place, Naru-chan," Makino answered softly, looking down at her hands as she said this. Naru froze at her words, blinking her eyes at Makino before looking desperately at the young woman, hoping that she was joking about this. Makino simply shook her head, tightening her grip on the cloth as Naru placed her head on the table to process this news.

Luffy wasn't going to live in the village anymore? But that couldn't be true, it just couldn't be. Why the hell would the old man dragged Luffy away from the only home he knew? Why the hell would he drag the one joy that was brought to this village before Shanks had came. Why would he take her best friend away from her? She clenched her hands into a fist, taking a deep breath and looked up at Makino.

"Why would he do this to us? Doesn't he know how much Luffy means to us?" Naru whispered-her tone so soft that Makino had to leaned in closer to her to hear this. The blond looked at the young woman with furious eyes. "What right does he has to take him away from us, huh? He isn't here to watch over Luffy all the time and you and the other villagers are doing a great job with him!"

"Naru-chan, Garp is Luffy's grandfather and still has the right to take Luffy out of this town," Makino answered, wrapping her arms around the visibly shaken young girl. "I don't know why he is doing this but he has a reason to do this."

"I hope it's a good reason! Because I'm not letting him taking Luffy away from us without a fight!" Naru muttered, jumping off the stool and running towards the door. She was near the door when she found herself being pulled back by the collar by Makino. The blonde scowled, turned around and took in a shaky breath when she saw the warning look on Makino's face.

"Don't you dare go after them, Naru-chan!" Makino warned, steering the sulking girl back to the stool and pressed the girl's shoulders until she had no choice but to sit down.

"And why not, Makino-san! Don't you want to know why he is dragging Luffy away from us?" Naru slammed her hand against the table and jumped off the stool. She hunched her shoulders while Makino sighed at her behavior. "He shouldn't do this to us! He should tell us where Luffy is going! He can't take my friend away from me!"

The young woman wrapped her arms around Naru, who slowly began to relax into the hug, and said, "I know how you feel Naru but I don't want you to get hit in the head by Garp again. Or worse, have him make you go through the same things that Luffy had to go through whenever he's here."

"I can handle his punch!" Naru muttered as Makino put her hands back to her sides and knelt down to look at her. "And I can go through what Luffy went through! There isn't much difference between me and Luffy!"

"I know but, I can't have the chance of loosing you in the forest or jungle because Garp thought it was a good idea or anything like that," Makino said firmly. "I don't want you out of my sight for more then a day Naru, not until you're married or working or until you're mature enough. It is just that I can't take the chance that I'll find you in the same horrible state that I found you four years ago."

Naru looked down at her hands at this, avoiding the sad look on Makino's face that she knew without a doubt was there. For the past four years of her life, she had Makino raising her and the young woman wasn't a sister to her but seemed to be like a mother to her. Always watching her, helping her and giving her advice and to be honest, she couldn't picture her mother being anyone but Makino.

"It's just that I want to see where he's going to live and if Luffy is going to be fine," Naru whispered, cradling her legs together and looked at the young woman with sad eyes. "Garp treats Luffy badly, he rarely visits him, sends him to the forest or jungle when he is here and doesn't listen to Luffy when he said that he wants to be a pirate! He always insists that Luffy is going to be a marine! Why doesn't he just accept the fact that Luffy will become a pirate?"

"There could be many reasons, Naru-chan that he doesn't listen to Luffy," Makino said. "Perhaps, he just wants Luffy to carry on his legacy. Luffy is his only grandson, it's natural he wants him to continue on his legacy and maybe he thinks that Luffy could be a good marine."

Naru furrowed her eyebrows, wrinkled her nose as she tried to picture an older-looking Luffy in the marine uniform, picturing him doing the work that the Marines often do. She shuddered, shook her head vigorously at the image that came into her mind. There would be destruction to the world, as they knew it. Luffy would destroy things, do things his own way since he doesn't like the way the Marines handle things. The worst thing would be the strict timetable; Luffy and strictness don't do well together.

"If Luffy became a Marine then I'll dye my hair black and stop picking fights with every damn boy in our town," Naru said, nodding her head. "Luffy and the Marines won't do well together. I mean it's Luffy we're talking about, he isn't able to handle the strict timetables that the Marines have."

"Really now?" Makino said, smiling at her.

Naru didn't say anything immediately, trying to manage her train of thoughts and find the right words that explained why she didn't like the idea. It isn't because of the promise she made with Luffy, not because she knew of her friends' dreams but because of the one fact that Garp doesn't seem to realize.

"For as long as I have known Luffy, he had always represented to me the idea of freedom y'know?" Naru smiled brightly at this. "Because he just do things his own way, not caring about what people think and that's what freedom is, to do what you want. I always want that. I want to be free from the lack of memories, from the emptiness that is slowly consuming me. When I'm with him, I have hope that I'll have that again. Besides, if we took that away from him that small part of him, then he isn't Luffy. The Marines might take that away from him."

Makino propped her head on her shoulder and smiled, causing the blond-haired girl to raise her eyebrow. "Why are ya looking at me like that, Makino-san? Did I say something funny again?"

"I would have though that you want Luffy to change."

Smiling guiltily, the blond-haired girl looked at the pictures of her and Luffy scattered around the room. She didn't want Luffy to change that part of himself. No matter how much she whined about him. Complained about his horrible behavior, she didn't want to change him. The way Luffy was right now was perfect. His personality was one of the few reasons why she stuck around him because he understood freedom, and he knew the idea of fun. She just didn't like the fact that he didn't use his head all that much.

She didn't know how long he would last if he didn't have her nagging him to use his head about certain ideas.

"If Luffy changed then life in this small town will be so boring," Naru finally answered. "I nag at him, hit him in the head, yelled at him when he does something stupid but it doesn't mean I want him to change."

"For anything in the world?" Makino asked, smiling at her.

Naru paused at this question, looking perplexed at this question. Would she change Luffy to get back home? Make him more responsible and less selfish on the idea of her going back home? The idea was tempting but…no, she would never do that to her best friend. If he weren't so insistent of her travelling with him, of her being apart of his crew then he wouldn't be a friend.

"No matter how damn annoying Luffy is, no matter how many times I wished that he stops insisting that I be apart of his crew forever, I wouldn't change him for anything in the world." Naru smiled widely at Makino. "Because I like Luffy the way he is, annoying, irresponsible and naive."

"And you would do anything to keep him that way right?" Makino looked knowingly at the younger girl and smiled widely when she saw the huge nod from the ten-year-old girl.

No matter what she said, no matter what she thought, she would never change the boy. To her, that was the worst crime she could do to him because, the way he was now was the reason why they are friends. Not only that, Luffy had been her first friend in this small village, the first kid to accept her despite not coming from here, and that was why she would do anything to keep him the way he was. Anything.

To her, she would sacrifice the world if that meant that Luffy would never stop being the gullible boy that kept ranting to her about being Pirate King and who always gave her a big grin that always spelt trouble. The world wasn't as important as her friend's life, not as important as his personality. To her, the world could go to hell just as long as Luffy could keep that smile. It sounded strange when she told the other kids this but it was the fact that she knew without any doubt was true.

A world without a naïve, happy Luffy, wasn't a world that she liked to live in. But it was a world that she would have to leave when the two of them find her home and just the mere thought brought dread to her heart and made her grit her teeth.

If it weren't for the lack of memories and the thoughts of her family then there would be no doubt that she would stay with her best friend.

"You know, Makino-san, I'll visit Luffy in his new home one day."

Makino frowned at her response, opened her mouth to say something but shook her head and smiled at her before telling her that she should do it. Yet, Naru didn't missed the look of concern on Makino's face and she wondered if the young woman knew something that she didn't, that there should be something she needed to know.

Maybe it wasn't that important, Makino would tell her if it was important.

* * *

There was a mountain that surrounded Foosha Village. It was a mountain well known for housing dangerous bandits, bandits who had no doubt murdered and raided many homes. The mountain was the only place, where only those who were strong could survive or that was what Naru had heard from the other kids in their small village. If it weren't for the fact that she had heard from Makino talking to the mayor that Luffy now lived here, she wouldn't be here.

She tried her hardest not to cower at the sight of ravenous animals as they radiated with bloodlust, waiting for the moment where she would trip so that they could pounce on her. All the animals bared their teeth at her whenever she turned to look at her, causing her to gulp in fear.

The cold wind swished and rubbed against her bare arms, making Naru shiver and her teeth chattered at this. Shaking her head, the blond jumped over the tangled roots of the trees before looking up at the sky with a wistful expression. Just a couple of more steps and she would be beside Luffy, and she could have fun again, make plans for the future and all of that.

She just hoped that she would find him soon because this mountain was seriously starting to creep her out with the way the trees loomed over her and the ravenous animals that lurked in the shadows. If the animals and the trees were the reason why people believed that only the strong could survive, then she didn't blame them.

Naru shook her head furiously at this thought. How could she think like this? She was the strongest girl in the village, no the strongest kid in the entire village. She was strong enough to send a grown man flying to the forest, strong enough to handle the experience of not having her memory! Hell, she had survived serious wound at the age of six. A forest like this shouldn't make her question this.

She froze in her step. Her heart came up to her mouth. Her breath hitched as she felt her whole body sweating at the sight in front of her. The one sight that she thought that she would never ever get to see ever again:

The sight of Luffy being tied up.

Taking a deep breath, Naru took another step forward towards the younger boy. She had to help him! She had to save the boy before any of those starving animals get to him! She took another step forward. She couldn't let him get hurt! If he got hurt or killed by those animals then she would never forgive herself for allowing him to get killed.

Naru stopped in her tracks when she heard the sound of three male voices echoing through the woods. The hairs in the back of her neck stood up as the voices kept coming nearer and nearer to where Luffy was. A small part of her knew trouble was going to happen and a huge part of her longed to run away, but the memory of an injured Luffy stopped her in these thoughts.

With that in mind, Naru jumped up onto the tree and laid her chest against the tree branch and placed her head down as she waited to see what the situation was. She gulped when she saw a very large man with long whitish blue hair carrying a sword appeared. The sword was sharp and the size of that sword told her that it would be easy for him to kill her. There were two men behind him but they weren't of importance, the way they held themselves told her that they were weak.

"Those children Ace and Sabo you're telling me about are famous around here," the man said, walking through the roots. He turned to look at one of the injured man, who rubbed his injured head. "You're sure it's Ace that took your money, right?"

Ace? That was a strange name but it sounded kind of awesome, and it was unique too. If she weren't so worried about her life and Luffy as well, she would definitely asked the men if they could tell her what the guy looked like. A guy with that name must be cool right? And he must be pretty strong too because that name seemed like they were the best at anything.

"Yes," the crewmember admitted reluctantly. "I'm ashamed, but he got me by surprise."

The big man grunted at his words. "What a stupid child. To take money from our crew! If captain Bluejam hears about this, he'll kill us both!"

Naru bit her lips to prevent herself from gawking at this news. It wasn't a man that stole from them but a kid! And a stupid one at that! If you were going to steal something, the very least was pick targets that you knew weren't going to do some harm. She wasn't a thief but even she knew that!

Now, thanks to that idiotic boy, Luffy was going to be the one paying for his mistake since those men didn't look like the type to have tea with people when angered. He looked like the kind of guy that would murder anyone that stood in his way, which was troubling in Luffy's case.

She needed to get Luffy out of there as soon as possible.

"LET GO OF ME! DAMN YOU!" Luffy yelled, snapping her out of her thoughts. Naru clenched her hands as the enormous man tightened his grip on the younger boy's ribs. The blonde gritted her teeth but stayed where she was, debating about whether she should continue to wait or take her time in saving him. "Help me, Ace!"

He wiggled at the man's grip and Naru felt her heart shattered as he continued to do so. Without a second thought, she jumped down from the tree branch and nearly launched herself at the older man but decided against it. Attacking the man now wasn't going to do her any good, just one flick of his sword and she was dead.

No, she needed to wait for perfect time to attack him.

The blonde clenched her hand into a fist as Luffy continued to call out for help and found herself shuddering at the thoughtful look on the older man's face. That look, something about that look brought a bad feeling for her. A feeling that if she didn't save Luffy soon then he would die. That she would lose the one friend that she cared about. The one friend that had always been there for her.

Losing Luffy wasn't an option!

Still…why couldn't Luffy have found himself in a better position then this? Like, maybe being held by some rich bastard that could be easily beaten? And not by some bastard who looked like he ate kids for breakfast?

"Do you know him, brat?" The ugly man questioned.

"He's my friend!" Naru found herself frowning at this thought as she curled her hands into tighter fist. She didn't like the idea of Luffy having a friend that she didn't know, one that she didn't approve of. "But he did try to kill me just now…"

Naru gritted her teeth at this information. That boy had nearly tried to kill her best friend, now that was something she couldn't forgive! And what was worse was the fact that the damn idiot still thought that the boy was his friend! What type of friends would try to kill their own friend, tried to do a horrible act at such a young age. She was definitely going to murder the boy before slamming her fist against Luffy's skull, and give him the rant about who were good friends and who were horrible friends.

"I'm going to ask you one thing," the man snarled. "Today, he took our money and ran away with it. Do you happen to know where it is?"

_Attack him now!_ A voice whispered so softly in her mind and for some strange reason, she followed the voice words. She launched herself into the man that was holding Luffy, surprising the man. He immediately dropped Luffy as she kicked him in the stomach, sending him flying to another part of the forest. She growled at the other members of his crew, watching with hooded eyes as they ran away from the forest.

"N-Naru!" Luffy cried, scrambling to get to his feet.

"Hi Luffy, sorry it took me too long to visit you!" Naru said, smiling at him before gripping him in the arm. He kept on smiling but made no attempt to stop her as she turned him around, searching for any serious injuries that he might have. There were no scratches, no bruises and luckily no bleeding on him.

She sighed in relief and hugged the younger boy, causing him to smile even wider as he comforted her. She gently pushed him away, looking at the younger boy with sadness.

"Hey Naru, why are you here?"

"I told you didn't I? I'm visiting you, isn't that what friends do?" Naru asked, smiling at him as she took a seat down on the dirty forest ground. "I would have been here earlier but I hadn't known where you'll live and still wouldn't know if I hadn't overheard Makino-san talking to the mayor about you. A good thing too because if I hadn't gotten lost then I wouldn't have found ya, and definitely wouldn't have been able to save ya."

"T-That was so cool!" A voice called out and Naru frowned, turning her head to look at who was speaking. Her eyes widened in shock when she saw that there were two boys around her age, standing up from the bushes. One had blond-hair likes hers while the other had black-hair like Luffy. She glanced at Luffy, who grinned at the boy.

"Pardon my language, but who the hell are the two of you?" Naru asked, boring her eyes at the two boys and watched in satisfaction as the blond-haired boy flinched at her stare.

"He's Sabo! And the boy beside him is Ace!" Luffy said excitably. He gulped when he saw the dark look on the blonde's face, taking a couple of steps back as Naru gritted her teeth and glared at the boys before giving him the same glare. "T-They're my friends, Naru!"

"Friends?" Naru laughed bitterly at his words as she looked at the two boys, who now took a closer step towards her. "They aren't your friends, Luffy! If they were your friends then they would have untied you from that rope or saved you from those good for nothing pirates! They wouldn't have left you to die!"

"They would have saved me!" Luffy said, puffing his cheeks at her. "They were just protecting their treasure, Naru!"

Naru slammed her hand against the boy's head, watching in satisfaction as the boy cried out in pain. He deserved it for being an idiot. She also slammed her fist against the tree before saying heatedly, "So their treasure was more important than your own goddamn life then, Luffy? Treasure comes and goes but your life is the one thing that will never go until you die and is one of the most precious things we have! If you had died then how would the villagers react? How would I have felt, huh?"

"But I'm not dead, Naru!"

"Because I saved you! If I hadn't saved you then there was a huge chance that you would die!" It took all of her willpower not to have her tone become hysterical. "I couldn't have you die on me, not now and not ever! If you died then you can bet your ass that I would have punched you in the face for doing that to me!"

"Then I'm lucky you save me."

Naru didn't say anything, nodding her head tensely at his words as she tried to repress the image of an injured Luffy out of her mind. He was safe now. Those pirates won't ever try to hurt him again. He wasn't going to die; he wasn't going to lose his memories like her because they hadn't hurt him. They hadn't made him lose his innocence just yet.

"You're Ace, right?" Naru asked calmly, staring at the dark-haired boy who scowled at her. He didn't answer her, giving her cold look in response and for some reason a memory flashed through her mind of a dark-haired boy with a duck-haired style doing the same thing to her. She frowned, trying to dive through deeper into the memory but had no luck. She shook her head and glanced at Luffy to confirm her question, with a smile on his face he nodded.

Before anyone could blink their eyes, Naru slammed her fist against the boy's cheek, throwing him against the tree. The blond-haired boy blinked and blinked his eyes before gawking at her while Luffy's smile dropped but he didn't say anything, probably knowing that she wanted to do that for a while now.

"What the hell did I do to deserve that!" The boy snapped.

"You stole from those pirates didn't you?" he didn't answer her question but his silence was all she needed to hear. "Well then that answers your question! If you hadn't stolen from those pirates then Luffy wouldn't have been in a situation where he would have nearly died! Hell, you nearly tried to kill him didn't you?"

Ace didn't answer her question but she could tell from the flicker of guilt in his eyes that the answer was yes. He did try to kill her best friend and that itself, made her blood boiled. What did her friend do to him huh? He hadn't done anything to deserve death! Hell, Luffy was seven and to kill a seven year old was the worst thing a person could do.

She couldn't forgive him for doing what he did to Luffy. Her best friend could be nearly dead because of his actions. She could have lost the one person that made her smile, the one person besides the adults in their village that accepted her. He would have made her lost the one person that had always been there for her. And for that, she couldn't forgive him.

"I hate guys like you! You just remind me of the pirates that just hunt for gold and those are the worst pirates in the world!" Naru snarled, putting her hands into her fist as she glared at the dark-haired boy. "Those pirates wouldn't care if the kid is innocent, all they care about is money! They wouldn't care about taking away a person's life!"

"All pirates hunt for gold!" The blond-haired boy stated.

"Not all of them," Naru took a deep breath and picked up the hat that fell from Luffy head. She stared at it for a good minute or two before setting it back on Luffy's head. She smiled when the boy fixed his hat, laughing at the determined look on his face, before continuing. "Some pirates just go out of the sea for adventure, some for gold, some to find their dreams or like what Luffy plan to do, become Pirate King."

"Or like Naru, trying to find a way back home!" Luffy piped.

Naru smiled sadly at this reminder. Home. That was the reason why she wanted to become a pirate; she wanted to find out about the home she came from. To remember the life that she had. To know how and why she got those injuries and how she came to be in this perfect little village. She wanted to know about the family she had left and the only perfect way was to be a pirate. Naru blinked her eyes when she noticed that the two boys stared at the pair of them in confusion.

"A way back home? Why would you want that?" The blond-haired boy asked. "Why do you want to become a pirate for that? Can't you just find a boat to take you home?"

"Because there're no boats going there," Naru answered sadly. "From what I heard from Shanks, not many people knew of my home or where it is. The only person who knew besides him would be people a part of the crew that he had apprenticed. Sadly, the leader he told me is dead and is therefore of no help to me. Besides, no ship will be sane to go to a place filled with so much bloodshed and also again, no one knows where it is."

"That's just what Shanks said! It might have changed in the past four years!"

"And the fact that Makino-san found me lying on the beach drenched in my own blood," Naru said thoughtfully, staring at the two boys. "But anyways, I can't find a way back home easily and the only way I can do that is to be a pirate captain or be in a pirate crew!"

"You're going to be apart of my crew and no one else!" Luffy said, puffing his chest out at her. Naru giggled at his behavior. If there was one thing, she couldn't deny about Luffy was the fact that he was stubborn about her being in his crew and no one else. He didn't even like it when Shanks would tease him about taking her with him and leaving him behind.

"I did say that to you, right?"

"Of course you did! Told me that you'll be apart of my crew as long as I don't do anything…" he scratched his head as he tried to remember the words that she always said to him.

"Too stupid," Naru yawned, stretching her arms as she did so. "And as long as I have some say on who is on the crew and what crewmember comes first!"

"But I'm the captain, I should decide…"

"Are you questioning me?" Naru asked, cracking her fist.

The younger boy gulped. "No!"

The blond-haired boy, Sabo laughed at this while Ace seemed to have a barely noticeable smile on his face but their smiles and laughter were gone when Naru shot them a dark look at them. Those two didn't have any right to be furious with her best-friend, not when they were the reason she had nearly lost the one boy whom she cared deeply for.

Besides, they haven't seen her when she was really pissed.

With that in mind, she slammed both of her fists against the two boys' heads and watched in satisfaction as a huge lump was formed on their heads before deciding to twist their arms. They yelled out in pain. She smiled in joy at this sound, feeling the satisfaction of hurting those boys for laughing at her friend and pay back for putting him in harms way. Luffy kept his smile as the boys fell down to the ground, clutching their arms in pain.

Naru raised her eyebrows at the furious look that the two boys shot at her, crossing her arms against her chest and said plainly, "That was for getting Luffy into harm's way! I would have hurt the pair of you even more if it weren't for the fact that I'm a hypocrite about making sure Luffy isn't in harm ways. I did that too many times to Luffy."

Luffy tilted his head at her and asked, "What does hypocrite mean?"

The blonde pinched her nose at his question and answered, "Well, you know how I tell you never to swear even through I swear myself?"

"Yes."

"That's being a hypocrite."

"It's a mystery hypocrite."

Naru rolled her eyes and opened her mouth to try to explain it even further detail but decided against it. No matter how much she would try to explain it to her best friend, he would never get the concept of being hypocrite. If she could only make him read books and use his head a little bit more then there wouldn't be any problems but, getting Luffy to read was like talking to a mountain: one-sided and impossible.

She shook her head and looked at the two boys, who stared at her and looked as if they had questions to ask her but didn't seem to look as if they had the words to express their questions. Shrugging her shoulder, Naru looked at Luffy, who seemed to be content in staring at the scenery around them. It surprised her how he didn't have any injuries but she was glad. It would have been too painful for her to stand the sight of his injuries. It would also be painful to explain to Makino that she had found Luffy injured and how she left him in that state.

"Why the hell would you choose to be a part of the crew and not a pirate captain? And why him of all people?" Ace asked, surprising her as well as the two boys beside her.

Naru arched her eyebrows, crossed her arms and answered, "Because I would be with a captain that I know I can trust and someone I had known all my life. Being a part of a crew that I don't know much about doesn't seem good idea because for all I know they can be cruel and the last thing I want is to be apart of something cruel. Being a pirate captain doesn't suit me, because I'll leave sooner or later and a pirate captain should be a permanent thing."

"You're not leaving me!" Luffy said firmly, crossing his arms at her.

She shook her head at Luffy and pointed out, "Luffy, I told you that I'll leave you when you find my home. I've people waiting for me back home and you know that!"

"You don't know that!"

Naru froze at his words and looked up to the clear blue sky. She had never expected Luffy to say that but then again, the boy said things without thinking. He never ever thought about his words. He didn't know that hearing that, was painful for her to hear. He didn't know that she didn't want that to be true. That she didn't want to think that there might be a chance that she had been…

She shook her head at the trail of thought and looked at Luffy, who continued to smile at her. She envied him for being able to smile so easily, for stating the one fact that she kept denying to herself. She knew he could be right. She didn't know if she had her parents waiting for her back home, she was just basing it on hopes and from the necklace that clung to her neck.

"No matter what you say, I'm going to still insist that you be a permanent member of my crew!" Luffy said and the blonde couldn't help but smile at hearing those words from her friend's mouth.

"You know no matter how you insist on that, I'll still insist that I can't be a permanent member of your crew!" Naru said firmly, crossing her arms at her chest before looking at the younger boy, who still had a smile on his face. She sighed, knowing from the glint in his eyes that he would continue insisting that she stayed on his crew.

"You're going to stay in my crew!"

"Even if my dream is to see my home?" she asked, raising her eyebrow.

"Well we'll go to your home and you'll see them before setting sail!" Luffy said, smiling widely at her. Naru chuckled at his words, deciding to keep her insistence of not being a permanent member of the crew to herself until the next day. She would let him continue believing this but nothing he could say would changed her mind.

"Where do you think your home might be?" Sabo asked, looking at her with child-like interest and curiosity.

"No clue," Naru admitted, running her hand through her short blond-hair before looking at Luffy, who looked up at her. "But if I had to take a guess from what Shanks had said then it might be in the Grand Line, somewhere in the new world I think."

"You think?" Ace muttered.

Naru scowled and glared at the boy before saying to her fellow blond, "I don't have many memories of my home, you see. The first six years of my life is nothing but a mystery to me since Makino had found out that I had amnesia and that the only thing I remember is my name. It's only now that I have little bit of memories but these memories, don't tell me its exact location. All I can say is that it is bigger than this village!"

"Really?" Luffy asked, looking wide-eyed at this.

Naru nodded her head, furrowing her eyebrows at her memory. "Yeah, Luffy. In my village, it wouldn't be a surprised if no one didn't know another person, it was just that big."

"And your village has a Hokage right?" Luffy asked excitably. "Shanks said that the Hokage was able to kill a demon!"

"A demon!" Sabo exclaimed while the black-haired boy stiffened at Luffy's words. Naru narrowed her eyes at Ace, frowning before shrugging her shoulder as she tried to run through the few memories that she did have of her home. There weren't many and most of them didn't seem to be all too happy.

Then again, when was school ever happy?

"Iruka-sensei claimed that the Yondaime Hokage killed the demon that attacked our village but he never answered my question on how…he claimed that no one knew how the Hokage did it," Naru pursed her lips. "But I don't know if that was ever true. I always thought it was weird."

"But you heard Shanks, he was there!"

"Yes but he also said that he didn't know how he got rid of the demon," Naru pointed out. "It's a demon and I think killing a demon would be a lot harder, besides if the Hokage did that, I don't think I will ever respect the Hokage."

"Why?" Luffy asked.

"Because maybe that demon had some right to attack the village, maybe one of the villagers did something to hurt the demon," Naru answered automatically. "Who is he to decide to kill the demon or not? Besides, what if the demon had kids huh? How would the kids feel?"

"They would probably think that their parent had condemn them to have a horrible life," Ace muttered.

Naru shook her head and frowned before saying, "But that's stupid! It isn't like their father or mother wanted to condemn them with that! If they loved their kid then they would probably try to give them the best fighting chance!"

"But didn't Shanks said that the demon had came out of nowhere?" Luffy asked.

"He did," Naru admitted. "But I can't help but feel sorry for the demon. He had some reason for doing what he did and maybe he was doing it for the right reason but people will never know because the Hokage had decided to murder him or her."

Luffy nodded his head, looking as if he understood his words but Naru knew that the younger boy understood nothing from what she had said. She didn't blame him. He was still seven, he didn't understand that there are some things aren't always as it was seen. She wanted him to teach him that but she didn't want to break the little bubble he had.

She didn't want to be the one to take away his naivety.

"Oh yeah, Luffy, mind telling me the way back home? I kinda didn't tell Makino-san that I came here."

"Why? You always tell Makino where you go."

"She would have told me that she would come with me, saying that I'm still too young to go to the forest by myself!" Naru looked up at the sky. "I'm not that young! You're here and you are able to survive! How am I any different?"

"You're a girl."

The blonde glared at Ace while Sabo nodded his head in agreement. Luffy simply took another step back and said, "you shouldn't say that! Naru will hurt anyone that implies she is weak because of her gender! The last person who said that got sent to the doctor!"

"I didn't mean to send him to the doctor," Naru muttered. "He was just pissing me off because he kept saying bad things about ya. Like I could sit still when a friend of mine get insulted!"

Luffy grinned at this, laughing at her words. It really surprised her how he didn't mind being insulted but then again that was the one trait she wished that she had but she couldn't find herself able to control her temper. It was like the switch of her rational mind was off when it came to Luffy being insulted or anyone closed to her, really.

Naru shook her head at this thought and stared at the two young boys who kept staring at her and Luffy. She pressed her hand against the whirlpool necklace, feeling the comfort of the cold metallic necklace against her chest and found herself taking in a big breath as she sat down on the ground, rubbing her sore ribs.

"So do any of you boys know the shortest way to get back to the village?" Naru asked, looking at the two of them.

"Why should we tell you? You got here by yourself, you could go back the way you came!" Ace said, glaring at her.

"Because if you don't tell me, I'll tell Garp that you got Luffy lost and nearly let Luffy got killed," Naru informed Ace, smiling evilly at him. "I'm sure you know how scary Garp can be and if he finds out that you let…"

Ace turned paled at her words, looking visibly shaken at her words. The blonde grinned. She knew better than anyone that Garp was not a man that you wanted to face when angered. He had made her go through the same horror that Luffy went through, saying she was going to be a marine along with Luffy and not some pirate.

She would rather be pirate then marine if that meant she didn't work for any man that was like him.

"But you're too scared to tell Gramps."

"Not if it meant that your life was endangered!" Naru said, putting her hands around her head, frowning as she looked at the smiling boy. "I'll put aside my dislike and fear for your grandfather if that meant your life is endangered. You're my best-friend and I'll do anything to make sure you don't get hurt."

"But my punches are as strong as a pistol! I don't need you protecting me!" Luffy whined.

"Sure it is," the two boys muttered. "You had a girl saving ya."

"He wouldn't have needed saving from me if one of you boys had decided to man up and save him," Naru retorted. "If he hadn't been tied up, he would have been able to run away and hence wouldn't need me to surprise those three and attack them. Besides, it's good that I save him because if I haven't then there was no doubt that they would have done some serious damage."

The two boys didn't seem to flinch at her words but she could tell from their body language that they did seem a little bit guilty for what happened to Luffy. She took a deep breath, stretching her ribs and winced as she felt the throbbing pain in her ribs. Maybe it would be a wonderful idea if she doesn't go saving people without protecting her valuable parts.

She rubbed her knuckles and said, "I really should get going before Makino-san finds out that I'm not really in the library like I claimed to be."

"Don't you hate the library, Naru?" Luffy asked.

"I despise it, Luffy!" Naru said as she headed towards the path that she had first came from. "But I'll be using that excuse a lot to visit you! Now let us get me back home!"

Luffy grinned and ran towards the forest. Naru chuckled and looked at the two boys, who seemed to be confused at what to do and this caused the blonde to shake her head and said, "Well are the two of you coming or not? I can't trust Luffy to take me back home! He's going to get me lost! And I can't get lost! Besides, I'm curious to know how you stole gold from a pirate!"

The two boys hesitated but it didn't take long before they ran after Luffy, telling him that he was going the wrong way and this caused the young blonde to laugh out loud at the three of them.

So that was the story of how Naru saved Luffy from a couple of pirates and the story of how she first met Ace and Sabo.

* * *

A/N: I would like to hear your thoughts about this chapter and I apologize if any of the characters seemed to be too out of character.


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything except the plot.

**A/N:** I would like to thank everyone that reviewed and added this story to their favorites and follows. To answer a reviewer's question, it will be another two to three chapters, maximum of four chapters before Luffy and Naru take sail to start their own crew.

* * *

Naru had a pretty good day. She helped Makino with some of the orders in the bar and got rewarded by the older woman, who gave her, her favorite food and told her that she could leave the bar and go to the 'library' like she usually do. She had also read her favorite book as she had walked up the mountain, not getting attacked on the way too so that was an added bonus. It had been as stated before, a pretty good day.

Unfortunately for her, her pretty good day had been ripped apart from her when she saw Luffy, Ace and Sabo bleeding as she had came up to their usual meeting place. Her good mood had been shredded and replaced with worry and concern about their wounds. She had been so worried about the three of them that she had practically forced all of them to sit down on the rocks as she tended to them, grabbing their sticks and putting it in front of her while she did that, threatening to destroy their sticks if they didn't let her do somekind of first aid on them.

"What the hell happened to the three of you? I was gone for one day and all of you got yourselves injured!" Naru yelled as she searched for any bandages in her bag. She sighed as relief flooded her senses when she caught sight of the bandages that she always brought for her.

She looked at the three boys critically, eyes flickering in their wounds as she tried to figure out who was the most critically injured one. Sabo wasn't critically injured, thankfully, but the same can't be said for Ace and Luffy. It was really a tossed up between the two, both of them had arms that were bleeding as well as heads but Luffy had a lot of bruises on his face while Ace didn't have that many.

Knowing this, Naru made her decision and without a second delay, she went to put Band-Aid on Luffy's face, glaring at the younger boy as he skimmed in his seat. She gulped as she felt the tenderness and soreness of his cheeks. If it weren't for the huge smile on Luffy's face, she would have found her walls breaking at this but luckily the smile on his face kept her going.

"Tell me, what happened to the three of you?" Naru asked, wrapping the bandages tightly over Luffy's arm. She looked at the two boys. Sabo avoided looking her in the eyes while Ace simply gave her a hard look and grunted at her question. She growled at their behavior. "Tell me what the hell happened to the three of you? Why the hell are all three of you wounded huh? Why are all of you bleeding? I want to know what is happening!"

The two boys stared at each other, avoiding her gaze. The silence between them was tense, so tense that Naru felt that any moment that she could suffocate from just the silence alone. She licked her lips and willed for her hands to stop shaking as she went on to bandage Luffy's head, reminding herself that she couldn't, no shouldn't mess up Luffy's bandages.

"A member of Bluejam is what happened," Sabo said quietly.

Naru froze at his words and nothing came to her mind when he said this. It felt to her that time had frozen, felt as if she was just like the scared little girl that she had been when Makino had found her. Felt as if the whole world was against her, felt as if a bucket of freezing cold had been poured over her and she was experiencing it's aftereffects.

"Why?" Naru whispered quietly. "Why did they attack you?"

"It was my fault!" Luffy answered. Naru turned her head to look at him and for the first time since Shank left them, Luffy had tears pouring over his eyes and a guilty look on his face as he stared at her. She opened her mouth to tell him otherwise but the words were jumbled in her throat as she tried to take in the fact that her friend had been at fault for what happened to the boys, the fact that a member of Bluejam had harmed them.

"What happened?" Naru whispered when the words finally spilled out of her mouth. "Why is it your fault, Luffy? Why would ya blame yourself, huh?"

Luffy took in a shaky breath, looking at her with so much sorrow and pain that she just wanted to wrapped her arms around him and tell him that everything was going to be alright but for his sake, she wouldn't do that to him. Instead, she continued to wrap the bandages around his legs and listened as he told her about how the crew surprised him and how they tried to force him to tell him where the treasure was. Every now and then, she would freeze as she listened about the punches they gave him and the spikes they used.

"…And, and Ace and Sabo came to save me, Naru!" Luffy cried, looking teary-eyed at her.

She stopped what she did at hearing this, staring at the two boys with wide-eyes. Naru wanted to say something to them but couldn't find the words to express her feelings, so until she could find the words to say it, she would continue to proceed what she did. So when Luffy finished his story, she wrapped the final bandage tightly and stood up to stare at the two boys.

She clenched her hands into a fist as she tried to find the words that could express her feelings but nothing seemed to fit what she felt. Nothing she could say could tell them about how grateful she was, about how she wanted to apologize for what she had done. Luffy didn't say it, the boys didn't say it but the fact was, none of this would have happened if she hadn't punched that big man.

"Ace come over here," she barked as she waved for Luffy to take a seat beside Sabo. The dark-haired boy opened his mouth to protest, maybe to protest her touching him because she could give him cooties like so many of the boys in their village did. She shook her head and stomped over to him, before grabbing him by the collar and dragged him by the ear to the stump.

"What's that for?" Ace yelled.

"How the hell do you expect me to bandage you properly if ya don't come near me and let me do it, huh? I'm not letting you or Sabo bandage yourselves!" Naru yelled right back and that got the boy to look at her in surprise. She took in a shaky breath before continuing. "You're badly injured, the both of you and I can't let two wounded people make themselves more wounded because they need to bandage each other! I'm not injured so the least I can do is make sure you guys don't bleed any more! Do you understand? I…I can't let you guys continue walking with those wounds!"

Ace kept quiet and Naru was grateful because she didn't want him or Sabo to question her change of attitude towards them. She didn't want to explain to them why she wasn't treating them right now with her usual distaste or fawning over Luffy like she usually did. Why she wasn't letting them do their own bandage!

She looked over at the piece of cloth that was soaked with Luffy's blood and shook her head. Makino had always told her that it wouldn't be a good idea to use a dirty cloth while healing someone and so with that in mind, the blonde looked at her skirt before making her decision.

_RIP!_

Luffy looked at her wide-eyed while Ace and Sabo flushed deep red at the sight of newly exposed tan skin of her leg. If the situation wasn't so dire, she would have laughed her head off at their expression but unfortunately the situation was bad and she needed to make sure that it doesn't get any worse.

"W-Why t-the hell did you do that?" Sabo spluttered, avoiding her face as he said this.

"Because I can't use the cloth that I used on Luffy-it's dirty and filled with his blood, might be dangerous to use for all I know. I ripped my skirt since I don't have anymore cloth to use, I need to use something to lessen the bleeding," Naru answered calmly as she dapped the ripened orange cloth against his head. "Makino will kill me if she finds out why I did it or that even did it and what's even worse is that it's my favorite skirt too."

"Well you could have used something else!" Ace snapped.

"Like what? A leaf?" Naru snorted. "No can do, I don't know these leaves as well as I like and so I wouldn't know if one of them is poisonous or not! Better use this then a leaf I don't know about! At least then I'm certain that you won't be poisoned, god if ya were poisoned I wouldn't forgive myself!"

The dark-haired boy looked taken back at her proclamation. She didn't say anything and when she was certain that the bleeding had lessened, she bandaged his two arms securely before moving on to his head. Her hands gingerly touched the wound on the side of his head. She grimaced at the feel of the blood coating her finger, before taking her ripened cloth and gently resting it on his head. While she did that, bits of his hair tickled her face and this caused the blonde to smile and even laugh at this.

"What's so funny!" Ace snapped.

"Your hair is tickling me," Naru said, smiling at him and this made him looked at her as if she was some kind of weirdo. Coughing, she continued, "Y'know I never felt hair as soft as yours! It kinda makes me want to pet it!"

The older boy looked down at this while Luffy and Sabo both laughed at her comment, causing her to flush deep red in embarrassment at their laughter. She didn't mean to say that but she didn't know what to say to him, that wasn't insulting. She glared at the two boys, opening her mouth to yell at them for laughing before shaking her head against it. She looked at the older boy, who still had his head down and had grabbed his boa-stick from the ground beside her. She shook her head and continued to bandage his head, careful in making sure the bandages didn't wrapped all of his head.

That would have been easier to do if Ace wasn't wrapping his boa-stick with her bandages!

"Put that stick down and sit still, idiot!" Naru snapped as she tried to wrap the bandages around a skimming Ace. "You can do it when I'm done bandaging up!"

"Why should I?"

"Because idiot, I need to be dead certain that these bandages are held firmly in placed! If it isn't then you can bleed to death for all we know! I don't want that! I don't want any of you to die!" she retorted, tying a knot on his head and she finally noticed that he had stiffened at her words. She noticed that everyone was staring at her now and to make things light, she said jokingly, "You, Sabo and Luffy are the reckless people I know!"

"Says the girl that attacked the member of Bluejam and got us to pay for her mistake!" Ace scowled. "If you hadn't attack their member then none of this would have happened!"

Naru winced at this reminder, looking at the crying face of Luffy and then to the bandaged wrist of Sabo before finally placing her eyes on the blood that was on Ace's head. Looking at their wounds was like a punch in a gut to her. Their wounds just had to be a reminder to her that she had done an action that had a terrible consequence on not only her but the others too. Those three boys were bleeding, bruised, tired because of her need to save Luffy.

She wanted to apologize for her actions. She really did but she couldn't find the words to say it or be sincere about it. What she had done was horrible, so horrible that she felt as if she deserved to be punished for the crime she had done to them. Yet, memories of Luffy being throttled by those men pushed those thoughts away and the urge to murder someone for hurting her friend was great. She hadn't meant for them to get caught up with her fight or even thought that the big man would have came to them after she had left.

"I know and I should say sorry for that but I'll be the biggest liar if I ever said I regret saving Luffy from those men," her voice broke and for once in her life, tears were streaming down through her eyes. "If I hadn't attack them then none of you would have gotten hurt but I can't help it. Luffy is my friend, my only friend and he's like family to me. Him, Makino, and Shanks are one of the few people I would protect with my life! But…but I didn't expect this to happen! Not one bit! I was hoping, praying even that he's a coward, that he wouldn't hurt him or the two of you for what I did!"

"Well you were wrong!"

Luffy stood up and looked like he wanted to yell at Ace for what he said but as tempting as it was, Naru wouldn't let Luffy do it. She might have known these guys for a few days but she could see just how much the younger boy looked up to him and knew how much it would ripped him apart to yell at his role model. So one smile from her and Luffy sat down, reluctantly but he understood the message from her. She glanced at Sabo, who looked torn at his words and looked ready to scold him but she shook her head and he stared at her with confusion.

"Yeah I was wrong, I was wrong about a lot of things y'know. I thought you and Sabo were bunch of jerks because of what ya did to Luffy," Naru admitted and he raised his eyebrows at her, causing her to smile widely at him. "The two of you aren't that much of jerks, just a bunch of kids that act stupid. Despite nearly killing Luffy a couple of days ago, you saved him. Not a lot of people would do that; very few people would do something as courageous as that. So I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm grateful for what the two of you did for him."

"Unfortunately, thanks to us being good guys, we now have the Bluejam's crew who won't forgive us," Sabo said, frowning at the two of them. "They'll be after us from now on."

Naru grimaced at his words, rubbing her chin before looking at Luffy, sighing at the pathetic sight of the tears rolling down his eyes. He looked so much like a baby when he cried like that, snot drooling from his nostrils and his lips whimpering as he stared at the three of them. She had a strong urge to hit Luffy in the head but she held it back. Her friend had just gone through something traumatic, he deserved to cry and deserved to have a hug.

"That was so scary!" Luffy cried, causing Naru to take a deep breath. She finished the last knot of Ace's bandage before going to Sabo, who didn't need to be ordered by her to know what to do. Luckily for her, he only had a sprained wrist and a few bruises. She winced as she heard his cries and tried desperately ton concentrated on tying a knot on Sabo's arm.

Each tear she heard and saw from Luffy tore her heart bit to bit, made her feel so bad as bad as the lies that she gave to Makino about where she went almost everyday. Maybe if she hadn't picked a fight with them then maybe Luffy wouldn't feel so scared. If she hadn't done what she had done then he wouldn't be crying. But she couldn't change what she had done. What was done was done. She couldn't go back in time to change what she had done or the consequence of her actions. If she could then she would make sure she doesn't hear his cries anymore.

"You're so annoying!" Ace snapped. Naru looked up to glare at the older boy, who ignored her glares and continued. "Shut up! How long are you gonna keep crying?"

"He has every god damned right to cry, idiot! Every single right!" Naru hissed, putting the final Band-Aid on Sabo's face. She flashed a smile to Sabo, giving him the bandages so that he could fix his stick, before glaring at Ace. She took in a deep breath before continuing; "He went through something traumatic, if he didn't cry then I would be worried as hell because that isn't normal! I know for a fact if I had been in his shoes that I would have cried, I would have told everything I know so that the pain would stop! Instead, he didn't and this is how you treat him!"

"He's being a crybaby!" Ace snapped. "He chose to do this and so he should take it like a man!"

Naru gritted her teeth at his words and yelled, "He isn't a man you idiot! He's a seven-year-old boy, a long way of being a man! And the same can be said for you and Sabo! A real man would let tears fall because he knows that it isn't weak to cry! Besides, he had the worst injuries out of the three of you! The worst! His forehead had been bleeding; his cheeks gashed and there were bruises all over his body! If that isn't bad enough, they threatened his life! Any sane person would cry in his shoes!"

"Naru, I was just so…" Naru closed her eyes and took in a shaky breath as she went to the boy, bringing him closer to her chest. The tears coming from his eyes strained her shirt and made her shirt clung to her skin as she hugged him, whispering as many comforting words that she knew. She could handle his tears as long as it meant that he let things out, as long as it meant that it wouldn't torment her or Luffy.

She could handle…

"_Why are you all alone, child?"_

Naru blinked her eyes at the sudden memory and found herself gulping as the day of that memory flooded in. She could remember the old man with the big hat, who had looked at her with sadness and pain. For some reason, the memory of that old man brought pang to her heart and made her want to cry along with Luffy but she couldn't cry. She needed to be strong for him. Just as Luffy was her rock, she would be his.

With this thought in her mind, she hummed softly, running her hand through his hair as he continued to sob his heart out for her and the others to hear. His sobs and whimpers brought tiny pangs to her heart, reminding her of the mistake that she had done to the three of them. She shook her head at these thoughts and stared at Ace, who continued to glare at Luffy as he continued to cry. For a brief moment, she wondered if the boy planned to yell at her best friend for crying like a huge baby.

When she knew for certain that Luffy wasn't going to whimper any more and she could no longer feel his tears, she pushed him off her. He rubbed his tear-soaked eyes with his bandages, lips wobbling and Naru could feel the instinct to hug him and never let him go become stronger but she fought against the wave of emotions. Luffy won't get stronger if she continued to coddle him! And he needed to get stronger if he wanted to become Pirate King!

"Thank you for saving me!" Luffy said, with tears streaming down his eyes as he stared at the two older boys. Naru shook her head when she saw the irritated look on Ace's face, before taking a seat beside Luffy. She wrapped her arms around the younger boy's shoulder, remembering how Makino had always done this gesture to her whenever she saw tears flowing through her eyes because of her frustration of not remembering her home.

"Why, you…"

"Come on now, he's just thanking us," Sabo said, trying to calm down an irritated Ace, who looked ready to throttle Luffy for crying. "And plus, you don't want Naru to punch you in the head again if you hurt Luffy."

Ace grumbled at these words, crossing his arms as he glared at her and Luffy. The blonde rolled her eyes at him and stated, "Y'know those glares of yours aren't frightening! Not one bit! But they are irritating! Do you even know how to smile? And also can you be a little bit nice to Luffy? I don't think Luffy can handle those glares after going through what he went through!"

"Why didn't you tell them, huh?" He asked, ignoring her question as he stared at the sobbing boy. "Those men would kill women and children without a second thought."

Naru felt her throat tightened at his words, her whole body trembling as an image of a deceased Luffy rushed through her mind. She could pictured his mangled body in her mind, could see that huge smile on his face as he died and that thought made her eyes burned, made her whole body quivered with fear for his safety.

If Luffy had died…she gulped the lump down and shook her head furiously at this thought. Her heart rate quickened like it was doing a race and it took her hugging Luffy tightly for her to remind herself that it hadn't happened. That her best friend wasn't dead, that he was alive.

She could feel Luffy tensing at her trembling, like he was almost acutely aware of her thoughts. Maybe he did know her thoughts. He was after all the only friend she had which meant that he knew everything about her. He knew about how she wanted to go home, about the fact that she loved the colour orange, that her favorite food was ramen, about her lack of memories and her frustration about that. He knew where to find her when she was frustrated, knew how to cheer her up when she was sad and definitely knew of her hopes.

"Naru, I'm fine! And those meanies won't ever hurt me again!" Luffy said, smiling at her and the blonde smiled at his words. She wanted to call him out for that, to tell him that he didn't know that. That they can't ever be certain because look what happened to him and the others, she thought it wouldn't happen but it did happen. If they came after them again, she didn't know if any one of them would survived especially Luffy. If they got attacked then she couldn't save them. She just wasn't strong enough against those pirates.

"I hope you're right, Luffy," Naru whispered as Ace crossed his arms, tapping his feet impatiently, waiting for Luffy to answer his question. "And I think Ace wants you to answer his question about why you didn't tell them. I think if you don't tell him, then he'll be even more grumpy."

Luffy looked at her closely, looking as if he was trying to see if she was going to break down in any moment but smiled and nodded his head when he saw her smiling widely at him. She knew that he knew that it was a fake smile. Knew that she was trying her hardest, not to break down again. In the four years, she had lived in this small village, he along with Makino had been the only people to see the difference between her fake smile from her real smile. Knew when to questioned her and they both knew that he shouldn't question her when she felt emotional.

They both knew she couldn't handle telling him about what was going through her mind.

"If I'd told them…I could never be your friend," Luffy admitted and Naru found her smile wavering at his words.

"That would be better than dying, right?" Ace asked harshly. "Why do you want to be my friend so much, anyway?"

"Because…"

"After all the stuff I put through," Ace said furiously. "Why did you still follow us out there?"

"Because there isn't anybody else! I can't return to the village and I can't see Naru, as much as I used too since she can't keep lying to Makino about where the hell she is! She can't visit everyday! She can't play with me everyday because she can't keep lying to Makino! And I hate those mountain bandits!" Luffy said. "If I didn't chase after the two of you, I'd be all alone! Being alone is much more worse then getting hurt!"

"_Why do people hate me? Why am I so alone? Why don't people like me?"_

Naru bit her lips from crying out loud from the memory that rushed through her head at his words. She remembered that memory so well, so painfully well, so well that she wondered if where she was now, was actually a dream. She closed her eyes as she allowed the memory to guide her, hoping it would give her another clue about who she was. She could see that she had been trying to play with the other kids but none of them would let her, all of them had taunted her. Calling her names, saying things that she didn't want to hear, things that just made her want to cry but she never cried. Instead she would smile, hoping that it would convince them to play with her. It never did. If their taunts were horrible, then the glares from their parents as she tried to play with them were terrible. When it finally came to her that they didn't want to be her friends, she ran and ran to her apartment, ignoring the whispers from the villagers that watched her as she did so.

An empty apartment with no one waiting for her.

She remembered how she looked in the mirror and tried to find out what made them disliked her but nothing came to her mind. She remembered counting her fingers and her toes, thinking maybe she didn't have the same number of toes and fingers but found they were the same as them. She tried seeing if she was ugly but she didn't see anything ugly, she looked just as pretty as any of those parents' kids.

After that, she didn't have anymore memories.

Naru found herself clenching her hands into a fist and softly said, "Luffy is right about the loneliness being more painful then getting hurt. When you're lonely, you just feel as if there is a constant ache in your heart and no matter how hard you try, the loneliness won't leave. No matter how hard you try, no one would ever like you and the worst thing is…you don't even know why!"

"That wasn't what I meant!"

"I know Luffy, but that's what my opinion on loneliness is," Naru whispered, staring sadly at him. "I remembered from the few memories that I had that I was lonely, that I needed someone to tell me that they'll be there for me. I remembered how I was going mad from the loneliness. Now, I don't ever feel like that because I got ya to chase it away from me!"

"Are you lonely now?" Luffy asked.

"These days a little bit but not as bad as those memories," Naru answered, smiling at him and then at the three boys. "I can handle it because I got Makino-san to chase it away for me and if it does get a little bit more painful then I could always go visit you, Ace and Sabo…after all I can annoy these two if I find out that you're missing."

"I won't get lost!"

"Sure you won't get lost, I believe ya," Naru said automatically.

"You're being mean again!"

"Me mean?" Naru looked offended at his words before laughing at the pout that Luffy gave her. "Fine, I'm being a little bit mean but you have to admit that you can get lost."

"But you don't have to say it!"

"I can say whatever I damn want, Luffy!" Naru said, jumping up from the rock and looking at the two boys with interest and curiosity. She hadn't cared much about the two of them in the beginning however that changed when they saved Luffy. Looking at the two of them, she couldn't see their strength. Both of them were scrawny and skinny, not looking as if they could pack a punch or even fight properly but from the sobs of Luffy that seemed to be untrue.

"I don't know if I said this to you two but you guys surprised me," Naru said, looking at the two squirming boys. Sabo frowned at her words, furrowing his eyebrows to say something but decided against it, looking at her thoughtfully and carefully. Ace, on the other hand, simply gave her an icy look, looking rather annoyed by the fact that she was still staring at them.

"What did we do to surprise you, huh?" Ace snarled when she didn't explain about why they surprised them. Naru tapped her finger against her cheek, tilting her head as she observed them carefully before nodding her head in confirmation. No matter how much she tried, she couldn't see them nothing but as a bunch of weaklings.

"When I look at the two of you, I don't see a bunch of kids my age that is strong but bunch of kids that looked weak as hell," Ace and Sabo glowered at her words but Naru ignored their glowers and continued. "Makino-san always told me that I shouldn't base things on appearance and now I understand why…despite looking scrawny, you two are strong enough to fight a pirate and that means, I won't have to worry about Luffy being killed by a pair of wolves if he had the pair of you."

"I won't ever be killed by a pair of wolves, Naru!" Luffy cried.

"I know but it doesn't stop me from worrying, Luffy," Naru admitted softly, slumping against the rocks. "I heard rumors about these forests, about the animals that lurk in these areas and all of them makes me worried about you because of how damn reckless you are! I can't save you from them! Because I don't live here and can't live here due to Makino-san being my caretaker! But knowing that these two can watch you for me, makes me feel better!"

"We tried to kill him, y'know!" Ace said harshly, causing her to turn around to look at him. "How the hell can you trust us after knowing that we nearly killed him, huh? For all you know, we might try to kill him again!"

"Ace!" Sabo said, looking at him in shock.

Naru smiled, looking down at her hands before looking up at Ace, who took a step back at the sight of her smiling at him. She smiled sincerely and answered, "Because you saved him, despite nearly killing him, you went back and saved him! That tells me you won't kill him again and despite what I thought and said earlier, I know that the pair of you are good guys."

"For all y'know we might be deceiving you!" He snapped.

"You might be but I have to take a chance that you won't hurt Luffy," Naru answered softly. "And if you do hurt Luffy then I'll pummel my hand against your throat and make you wish that you never crossed with me!"

They paled at her words and nodded quickly at her words. If she weren't being so serious about it, she would have laughed so hard because of the expressions of their faces. They looked so frightened of her; just like Luffy and the funny thing was that she didn't have to do anything to make them scared of her. She grinned and shook her head at them.

"But I doubt that will ever happen," Naru said, smiling at them. "You're Luffy's family now and I don't hurt anyone that is a part of his family. So count yourself lucky."

"Really lucky!" Luffy said happily. "You guys, Gramps and Makino are the only people who wouldn't get punched by Naruko!"

"What about his parents huh? You'll hurt his parents."

Naru stiffened at Ace's words, looking hesitantly at Luffy, who still had a huge smile on his face. She didn't know what was worse, not knowing who your parents are or if they're alive but having a grandfather who wouldn't say anything about the parents that his grandson had. She didn't want to know how Luffy could handle this, couldn't understand how he could still be happy and never asking Garp about his parents.

"My Gramps is all I have," Luffy finally said.

"And he's rarely around to take care of ya," Naru muttered angrily. "He doesn't give a damn about your happiness or how the villagers feel when he took you away from us! What god damn right did he give to take care of you!"

Luffy had a huge smile on his face at her words but she knew just from his tense shoulder that he was forcing himself to smile for her sake. If he showed her sadness then there would be no doubt in her mind that she would search for Garp, and hurt him for making her best-friend sad. For always leaving him alone in the village and not caring about how the other villagers felt by taking him away from her.

Naru shook her head and looked at Sabo before turning her attention to Ace and then back to her fellow blond. She took a deep breath and said, "I'm going to say this again because I don't know if you know how much it means to me but, knowing that you guys saved him tells me that you'll take good care of him. That you might be able to handle any loneliness he might have or take care of any problems that he caused. I've always been the one to take care of him but I can't do that anymore!" she clenched her hands into a fist. "It pains me to say this but you guys have to take care of him for me when I'm not there! The pair of you have to do this for me!"

"You want us to take care of him for you, huh?" Ace asked, putting his hands on his hips. "Despite the fact that we hurt him? Tied him up to a tree?"

"Do you want me to hurt ya for reminding me that?" Naru said angrily. She shook her head and smiled at him, causing him to blink his eyes. "But yes, despite all of that, I want you guys to take care of him. You guys seemed trustful and I wouldn't trust anyone with Luffy if I didn't think that they would take real good care of him."

"She doesn't even trust Garp to take care of me!" Luffy added.

Naru curled her lips at him and said, "He left you in a forest for nearly two weeks, without any food or water, only leaving you the clothes on your back! If Makino-san or I hadn't been so worried, who knew what the hell would happen to ya! If I hadn't learnt from Luffy that you saved him then I would have demanded to Garp that he lived with me and Makino and demanded that the pair of you get a beating up."

"What's stopping you?" Ace asked.

Sabo shook his head and said. "Are you mad, Ace? Are you questioning her about why she isn't doing this?"

"Because you beat a pirate for Luffy, no guy would do that!" Naru bunched up her skirt nervously. "I would feel terribly if I had done that and the last thing I want is to feel terrible…and you guys aren't so bad. Grumpy but a pair of nice guys."

"You don't think the pair of us don't deserve to live for what we did?" Ace asked and for some strange reason the way he stared at her brought shivers to her shoulder. Something about his question told her that he wasn't talking about Sabo and him but himself only. Naru gulped and licked her dry lips, mulling over his question before nodding her head.

"If I didn't think you guys deserve to live, would I have offered to take care of the pair of you?" Naru looked meaningfully at the bandages that were wrapped around Ace in his hands. "And who am I to decide who deserve to live or not? I might blame you for what you did to Luffy a few days ago but never in my life would I have wished you dead. You two are kids just like me and we do stupid things without thinking. But if it means anything to you two, I think the pair of you deserves to live. If not for your own sake then for the sake of the people around you."

They nodded their head at her words but Ace stared long and hard at her before looking at Luffy. He gave her a smile, looking as if he was proud that she had let go of her anger for those two boys and that thought made her shake her head. She couldn't ever stay angry for long; it just wasn't in her nature. She only stayed angry for long if they had truly meant to kill Luffy but she knew they hadn't meant it, how could they? They were kids just like her and therefore didn't know what it was like to kill.

Still, it didn't change what they did.

"If I'm with you, then it doesn't hurt…" Ace said, turning his head to look at Luffy. "…And if I'm gone…it'd be a problem for you?"

"Yup."

"You want me to live?"

Naru blinked her eyes at this question. She couldn't help but notice that Ace was sweating at these words like he desperately wanted that to be true. She frowned at this thought. If this was the case, why was he desperate for this thought? She glanced at Sabo to see if he knew why, if that was his normal behavior. One look from Sabo and she knew that what Ace said to Luffy must be unusual for Sabo to hear too.

Naru would have called Ace out for his behavior but stopped herself when she noticed that the boy was adjusting his bandages and this caused the blond-haired girl to twitch. She wanted so desperately to hit the boy for doing that-those bandages were her hard work after all and he had the nerve to adjust it. Why she never felt so insulted in her whole life.

"But I hate spoiled brats like you, y'know," Ace said harshly, clutching his stick tightly.

"I'm not a spoiled brat! I'm strong!" Luffy yelled, causing Naru to laugh out loud at this. He glared at her and she coughed, nodding her head at him but that only served for the boy to pout at her. She really wished that she could take him seriously but she couldn't do it to him now, right now she could beat him up with just one hand.

He wasn't strong just yet, even with his rubber abilitie but she knew that one day, he would become strong. She would make him strong because she wouldn't work under a person that was weak, even if she thought that the person was like a brother to her. She didn't want to work for an idiot or a weakling but she would rather work for a idiot then a weakling if she did have to pick one or the other.

"Strong?" Ace scoffed. "What's strong about you? You're a boy but you cry like a girl!"

"You ever been punched by spikes!" Luffy yelled, causing Naru to shake her head at him. "I'm seven damn years old! When I get to be ten like you, you can bet I won't ever cry, and I'll be even stronger!"

"I never cried even when I was seven! Dumbass! Don't compare me with you!"

Naru sighed at this and without a second hesitance, brought both of her fists on the two boys' heads. They yelped before glaring at her as they rubbed their heads, looking at her as if she was crazy.

She rolled her eyes, crossed her arms over her chest and said firmly, "The two of you should stop fighting about this! What's done is done! Luffy cried like a baby but that doesn't mean you have to provoke him about it! Luffy, how many times have I told you not to swear? Honestly if you keep swearing, I'll have to make you pay me for every swear word you say. And another thing, don't try to provoke Ace about how you're not crying when you're ten. I'm ten and I still cry, does that make me weak?"

"No," Luffy said, looking down at his legs as he said this. She smiled at him and ruffled his hair before looking up at the setting sun. With the sun setting, she needed to go home or else Makino would be worried sick about her. She couldn't have the woman worried about her, especially so worried that she might even banned her from going to the 'library' or found out about the fact that she doesn't even go to the library. She groaned at this thought. Why couldn't Makino be someone horrible? At least then, she wouldn't feel so horrible about lying to her.

"I'M GONNA BECOME STRONGER THAN ANYONE!" Luffy declared, snapping her from her thoughts. "BECAUSE I PROMISED SHANKS THAT I'D BECOME A GREAT PIRATE!"

"A pirate?! You?" Ace scoffed.

"Can you please not provoke Luffy? I don't want to hear his screaming when I leave!" Naru said, looking at the older boy pleadingly. "I need to go down the mountain with both of my ears in contact thank you very much!"

"Hey, by the way you three, I've a little problem here," Sabo said, snapping the three of them form their glaring contest. "I've lived in this trash heap all my life…"

Naru looked down at her torn skirt as she felt waves of guilt washed over her. He didn't have to say it, she already knew what he meant and all she could feel was that it was her fault. If she hadn't saved Luffy, if she hadn't punched that man that maybe he would have his home. She knew how painful it is to be torn away from your home.

But she couldn't take him with her because of the fact; she would have to explain to Makino about where she really goes. And if she told Makino the truth then the young woman would probably not let her go back to see Luffy. This mountain was dangerous as Makino said and the young woman didn't want to lose her.

Naru didn't blame her; she didn't want to lose Makino or Luffy and maybe these two boys either. She chuckled. Who knew that she would be saying this now, huh? Things were changing; she knew it and she could also feel it.

The question was, were these changes going to be good?

Only Kami had the answer for that but for Luffy sake, for her sake, she hoped that it would be for the best and not for the worst. She couldn't imagine losing these three boys now. In a matter of one day, they wiggled into her heart and became someone precious to her. Someone she would be willing to protect, people whom she had came to treasure.

The question was how was she going to leave them when the time came? Could she do that to herself? Force herself to go for a village that didn't seem beautiful, leaving behind people that actually gave a damned for her. She actually had people that actually loved her, and didn't scorn her like those people in her memories. How could she leave them now? She took in a shaky breath; smiling at Luffy, Sabo and Ace and told them that she should better get back home.

"See you, tomorrow, Naru!" Luffy said, smiling and waving at her as she walked away.

"Don't let the animals bite ya!"

"Like I would let them!" Naru retorted, smiling good-naturedly at the dark-haired boy.

"Keep safe!"

"I'll, Sabo!"

She really didn't know how she could even think about leaving those three boys behind when she went back home to her real village. But she had to do. She had to know who she really was, who her parents were and why those people hated her. But most especially, know how she came to this small village that was the complete opposite of her old village.

* * *

**A/N:** I would love to hear your opinion on this chapter and story in general. I would also hear about your opinion so far on Naru.


End file.
